AARP Grants Help to Improve Public Spaces

In the city of Torrington, the busy crossing at Prospect and Hungerford streets serves as a key route for residents to access downtown services, a park and public transit.

But it has become increasingly unsafe. A chunk of concrete is missing from the wheelchair ramp. The intersection lacks the tactile pad that people with visual disabilities rely on to know they’re entering the street.

And a beacon to alert drivers that a person is using the crosswalk flashes nonstop—so endlessly that it becomes “white noise” people tune out, says Sgt. Dustin Baldis of the Torrington Police Department.

So the city’s police department applied for and won a $13,500 AARP Community Challenge grant, which jump-started the work to make accessibility improvements to the intersection and inspired the city and several nonprofits to fund the rest of the estimated $25,000 project, Baldis says.

Torrington’s grant was one of 343 that AARP awarded this year for quick-action projects across the country, totaling $3.8 million. The program funds initiatives aimed at improving public spaces, transit, housing and other goals for people of all ages. The projects must be completed by Dec. 15.

In Connecticut, seven entities received grants totaling $56,883 from the national organization. AARP Connecticut also awards grants of up to $5,000 each to similar projects.

Some Community Challenge grants, such as temporary art installations, are geared toward short-term improvements. But for others, “the long-term impact can reach decades,” says AARP Connecticut State Director Nora Duncan.

“If you think about the Torrington example, that’s going to increase safety and potentially save people from accidents, even deaths, and add convenience,” she says.

Museum, library to benefit

Another grant with the potential for long-term impact: The Fairfield Museum and History Center, which attracts about 30,000 visitors and 1,000 researchers a year, applied for funding to go beyond the usual accessibility requirements to reach the widest audience possible, says Executive Director Michael Jehle.

With a $5,883 award, Jehle says the museum is installing large-print labels and QR codes on exhibits, providing Spanish translations on labels, and creating videos with closed captioning about the thematic content of exhibits.

“These kinds of grants, while they’re not enormous, are really transformative for organizations of our size,” he says, adding that the center recently updated its main gallery to tell a more complete history of Fairfield’s Native people and communities of color.

In southwestern Connecticut, the Bethel Public Library is using a $1,000 grant to install a device that enables hard-of-hearing people to adjust the volume of presenters and movies on their smartphone via Wi-Fi, without affecting other patrons.

“We spent the last six, seven years focusing on creating access for patrons, making sure that anyone who comes in here has the ability to experience the library in the same capacity,” says Director Megan Dean.

The device operates in a meeting room that seats 75 people and is used by other organizations that need a place to host meetings and programs, she adds.

The four other Connecticut grants awarded in 2024 are:

• $20,000 to the Connecticut Audubon Society in Fairfield to expand accessibility to its Birds of Prey compound.
• $9,000 to the town of Ellington to install a greenhouse in a senior center garden, used by residents to grow food for a local pantry.
• $5,000 to the town of Vernon to create a community garden at the senior center.
• $2,500 for MACC Charities in Manchester to build a community garden that will include several raised garden beds.

In September, the AARP Connecticut office awarded seven grants totaling nearly $30,000.

Mary Dieter, a freelance journalist, spent two decades covering Indiana state policy and politics for the Courier-Journal of Louisville, Kentucky.

Also of interest:

• AARP Livable Communities Map
• How and Where to Get COVID-19 Vaccines in Connecticut
• Keep up with local events and AARP advocacy efforts in Connecticut